yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II General] alonjankelewitz:
I've bricked my phone a few times. Full brick, so no hardware button response at all. Before I started flashing I bought a USB jig from eBay for £1 (free delivery). Puts it into download mode so you can flash a from through Odin, and restore my back up.

Sounds like a good service, but if like me, your a bit of a tw*t and brick it every now again, for a pound you can't go wrong. Beats 40 a pop!

Worth investing the £1 as a first resort.
[Galaxy S II General] Northern-Loop:
If the phone responds to USB Jig thats only a soft brick. Full brick is when it won't respond to that.
[Galaxy S II General] alonjankelewitz:
Semantics. The advice still stands. If you think its bricked. First port of call should be a JIG, not a 40 service. If the jig doesn't work, use the service.

PS. Wouldn't surprise me if the guy who created the thread works for the company, and is trying to get some free advertising.
[Galaxy S II General] Northern-Loop:
OP details says he is in Essex and http://www.fonefunshop.co.uk/contact.htm says they are in Sheffield so I doubt it.
[Galaxy S II General] alonjankelewitz:
Thanks Morse, good detective work. I'll inform your superior.
[Galaxy S II General] JJEgan:
Plastered all over this forum are the words use a USB jig to boot to download mode 99% should know that by now .

JTAG is a further step on the repair that until now i have been unable to locate in the UK thanks to the OP for the heads up .

As to the fact you think he is advertising the company and he works for them is uncalled for from you and just makes you look a pratt .

jje
[Galaxy S II General] alonjankelewitz:
Forgive my sinicism, you can't blame anyone for thinking that though. I'm sure others who read the first post had that thought flash through their minds. Why not put it out there? It would have been a good move by the company to open a thread stating how good he service is. I work for a marketing company so, I would have missed a trick if I didn't think that.

I don't dispute it is a good service. Not knocking the company. Just merely stating that a USB jig would be a better start than paying £40 for the service.

Trying to help less experienced forum members keep some cash in their pocket after probably spending a ****load for the phone anyway.
[Galaxy S II General] tshoulihane:
I'm all for idiots spending money to support honest engineers. Anyone who sends off their phone for a jtag recovery instead of doing a bit of reading deserves our encouragement.
[Galaxy S II General] RorixRebel:
People gotta learn the difference between soft and hard bricks seriously, anyhow im glad it worked and also its awesome that there are ways to repair the phone without having to spend an extreme amount of cash for it

OP did mention he doesn't work there so, this
[Galaxy S II General] ricey1986:
How do you know he didn't read? And how do you all know he didn't try a USB jig. Look at his stats he is hardly a noob. If you've messed up your bootloader chances are its hard bricked and no jig will help you with that.

p.s. I think this is a bargain if samsung refuse to fix under warranty. Is a jtag able to restore an efs that aint backed up??

Ricey
[Galaxy S II General] alonjankelewitz:
Your right, it is bargain if out completely **** your phone. But I would say 90% of bricked phones wouldn't need this service as a jig would work. If you have spent a lot on a phone and it bricked, and you hadn't done much reading, you probably Google it and this thread would pop up. You would read it and probably use it, without realizing that you could actually fix it for less. Most people wouldn't trawl through threads for the answer if they have just created 400 brick.

I don't why everyone is getting so uppety about my comment about him working for the company. If he doesn't, good find, he company is obviously very reasonably priced etc. If he does work for them, a why would he say he does? Second good on him. If people brick their phones, they are normally flashing and therefore using this forum. Would be an awesome place to get word around and increase sales.
[Galaxy S II General] OrrPenn18:
About the PS part, http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1264021

this has cured many ailments, possibly worth a try! :D

---------- Post added at 10:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 PM ----------

Hence, this is xda-developers, not xda-members ...!

People should know why the hell were they here in first place, atleast a soft vs hard brick difference should be known! Personally, I have known that since I entered XDA

You are right about the concern, but leave the man alone! He is helping

Trojan, keep up the good work, if you don't work for the site Cheers! If you do! Then double Cheers :p
[Galaxy S II General] alonjankelewitz:
Agreed.

Meant not to offend. Just making a point and an observation.
[Galaxy S II General] TrOjAnUK:
Thats NOT A BRICK..

I have a jig, a BRICK is when NOTHING fires up and a JIG dont do NOTHING.

The mis conception of " sob, Ive bricked my phone because I cant get anything on it in recovery" (NOT BRICKED) as compared to "I have bricked my phone as NOTHING WORKS" drives me mad.

So, just to be clear on this, if you can get your phone to do anything it is NOT bricked, and if the jig works it definitely is NOT bricked.

TrOjAn
[Galaxy S II General] TrOjAnUK:
Mate I really resent that..

So basically Im a liar.. thanks.. I offered up the post because the service I got IMO was exceptional.. I kn0w what a brick is, a REAL brick that is.... I would say Im an experienced rom flasher as I have been a rom beta tester for the last 2 years flashing on average 4 times a day.

I know nothing of the comapny other than I was impressed.. the object of the post was to re assure others that may really brick their phones that all is not lost. there may be other companies in the uk that do this service, they may be better.. I have no idea.

TrOjAn
[Galaxy S II General] iBotPeaches:
You guys seriously think that someone who has near 1500 posts and been here for 2-3 years is secretly writing a post for a company he works for? Hell no.

Half you didn't understand that it wasn't a soft brick. As someone mentioned this is a developer forum. Know your stuff before you make this crazy accusations. I'm sure Tr0jAnUK realized he was dealing with a hard brick and then found a service. End of story.

Then after he got a repair so fast near the holidays he felt like providing a link just in case someone else encounters it. Its not fun being ripped off by a company, he obviously didn't so he was providing a source of information. The nerves of some of you to just blindly through accusations around amazes me.
[Galaxy S II General] datagutt:
He just wrote a post about a company that gave him nice service, no need for accusations saying he works there and all that.
[Galaxy S II General] TrOjAnUK:
As a follow up, I let the company know of this thread seeing as they are in it and this is the reply I got....

Hi Terry,

I would just like to personally thank you for your praise regarding the repair our guys performed on your Samsung. It’s very rare to see people go out of their way to leave us such good praise (way of the world I guess). I have let all our staff here see this and I must say something like this is fantastic for morale.

I would also like to thank you for your post in the xda developers forum, as this will no doubt let others know about the work we do here.

Many thanks for that.

Oh… I also added your comments to our own customer testimonials page @ http://www.fonefunshop.co.uk/Unlocking/customer_testimonials.htm

I hope you don’t mind, if it’s a problem, let me know and I can remove it.

Many thanks again Terry and good luck in 2012 !!

Yours,

Mark
[Galaxy S II General] AndyFox2011:
Well said! I completely agree with you! I don't understand why when someone trys to be helpful people have to turn it into an argument!

Sent from my Mini Ice Cream Sandwich! Yum Yum Yum! :D
[Galaxy S II General] veyka:
Just fyi as someone asked, jtag won't fix a epic efs Bork, if you have a backup you are in luck, if you don't you are screwed.

Jtag is wiring into the stuff below (hardware wise) the boot loader allowing you to send files into the rom, eg the boot loader if you toasted it. (Tech details not 100% but that's the basics).

Depending on the hard brick and how much you mind tacking the piss, you can sometimes get Samsung to repair the phone under warranty, say it messed up during a kies flash or something.
[Galaxy S II General] TrOjAnUK:
Im not sure on this... I dont use samsung roms, but, when my phone came back it had the old 2.3.4 samsung rom on it, it had a signal and all worked when I put my sim in it so I assume there was some kind of efs on it?

I rooted it and put a custom NON samsung rom on it so the efs is not needed.

Shame I didnt check.. would have been nice to know what was on it when it came back ;)

TrOjAn
[Galaxy S II General] gippy2:
In all fairness fella , your observation and so called making a point couldnt be further away could it. A soft brick AINT a brick is it ? A brick is when its ****ed nothing, as the thread suggested from the beginning. TrOjAn does a lot of work on xda so certainly aint a newbie, in fact the more I read your posts the funnier they seem. Perhaps if you dont think this thread helpful move along simples and leave it for the people it MAY HELP.

:p
[Galaxy S II General] Sideromelane:
Soft brick is when you done screwed up and need the JIG to get the phone to boot to the flash system. You can then use odin etc.

Hard brick is when you managed to screw up the eeprom chip that the jig boots the phone to. Without a working eeprom your phone is truly dead and the jig CANNOT function since the eeprom that makes it work is whats at fault...

Jtag is a way of accessing the eeprom by connecting it to an external flashing device and forcing a new copy of the corrupted software onto it. It's how phones got modified in the old days.

This connection uses pads built into the motherboard and is not anything to try at home (okay in theory you could, but it's not easy. Think programming a microcontroller from scratch with bits you bought from maplin x10 complexity + circuit probing to find what pads go to what pins and THEN find some documentation on the eeprom itself! It's worth the effort to reverse engineer it or buy the kit from samsung for a commercial application but too much work for all but the most ardent hobbyist). The pads correspond directly to pins in the eeprom itself and bypasses the phones own (malfunctioning if you are at this stage) flash system.

Just to cover those misconceptions.
[Galaxy S II General] m00moo:
edit: repost
[Galaxy S II General] m00moo:
What an absolute muppet!! firstly don't talk to me like a noob because I realised by my OWN accord that I made a genuine mistake and misread the OP that he paid £40 for a soft brick, therefore I REMOVED my comment because I DID NOT want to offend. So don't come in here with all guns blazing like you are the most godly person in here. In fact you are the one that is crapping on this thread as your post was the very one that wasn't needed! like I said I have already removed my post you retard!
[Galaxy S II General] bluesith:
Cheers trojan . I always wondered where I would go when one of my drunken flashes goes wrong :-)

Shame you got a typical ( these days ) xda reply.
[Galaxy S II General] mattcfk:
good, now your learn your lesson. most retard can't read properly, i am posting in this is not because i wanna add in any information or to let anyone to "need" my post. i am posting this because i wanna let someone to learn a lesson before crapping and piss people off.

next time, open your eyes (if you have it) and READ properly before posting "offending" post again! it really will piss people off and i am one of it! hope you learn your lessons!

ps: its normal people will piss off if they read your "deleted" post. this is what you should expect and you should be prepared for the consequences (if you are matured and normal enough, well.... neh...).
[Galaxy S II General] buzzboy:
Gone are the glory days of Xda.

It puts anyone off opening a new thread in fear of opening the flood gates to the growing number of idiots I see here nowadays.

Aplologies for the rant, and thanks to Trojanuk for the handy info.

Regards
[Galaxy S II General] subhani:
Thanks for your tip Trojan mate. I also reside here in the UK and its great to know that there is a specialist service out there for such a specific problem. Most tech repair places are more noobier than myself.

I have had a full hard brick, no pun intended, on another android device and there was no way to repair it but to return it to my network provider for a good replacement.

I'm with three and a long-standing premium customer so they obliged!

Even I have a USB jig and I'm quite new. So such an 'observation' without observing that you are a senior member on this forum is premature really. Its the first thing I looked at when I read your post and said to myself "surely this guy didn't wait two years to become a senior member just so that he could spam us."
[Galaxy S II General] veyka:
All SGS2's have an EFS, its a partition that holds your IMEI, bluetooth and wifi MAC's etc, jtag wont magically rebuild it is what i was saying.

So basically dont get your phone JTAGed if you lose your EFS, it wont help.

As far as whats on it, if your phone works perfectly, then you will have the same EFS as before it was JTAGed.

(Sorry for the late reply, i forgot about this thread)
[Galaxy S II General] angelomaldito:
You've soft bricked your phone. A USB Jig is pretty useless for hard brick. For example, try flashing a wrong kernel, bootloader or firmware (i.e. meant for another device) and then try to ressurrect it with a USB Jig. You simply can't do that. But if you use (correctly) a JTAG box you'll probably be able to fix your phone.

USB Jig is a nice tool, but doesn't make miracles.
[Galaxy S II General] digeddydogg:
Thanks man! I bet you know the difference between hard and soft bricks now! Ha!

Just wanted to say in general, that I'm a total noob and soft bricked my phone a couple of days ago. I thought it was hard bricked (I'm a noob) and found this thread.

I would have used the service mentioned but as a read on I decided to get a jig as you suggested.

Worked a treat and it is defo 'Worth investing the £1 as a first resort' even though I paid 2.50 and postage wasn't free.

From reading the posts I think people lost his point and started flaming him for not knowing the difference (I didn't until a few days ago) and for his comment about the OP working for the company. (I couldn't give a **** I'd he does or doesn't).

I personally, almost did what he feared noobs would do though and use the service in a state of panic! So his post was useful for me.

Trojan, thanks for the thread. Will be useful if I do actually HARD brick my phone. Luckily I now the difference!

D.D
[Galaxy S II General] beston94:
So guys heres my deal: My htc hd2 is bricked :/ It won't turn on at all nothing at all. So you are basically saying me to send the item to them and pay them the 25 pounds for the jtag service and my phone will be back working??

Could someone please answer this ?
[Galaxy S II General] MemoryController:
@OP

What do you mean wrong ics bootloader? If its compatible with your phone model it should boot into download mode fine. Please elaborate.
[Galaxy S II General] digeddydogg:
Alright mate, answering cos know one else more experienced has. I'm not familiar with things with the hd2. From my own experience, I was getting absolutely nothing and a jig hooked it up (sgs2). I don't know how one would check for a hard brick, apart from use a jig and see if it works. If it doesn't work then I guess this service would be a good choice. But as far as I'm aware, IF you CAN get a jig for hd2 then try that first and if it doesn't then contact JTAG.

If I'm wrong, someone please correct me. Don't want to give wrong advice.

Ah did not realise you were from Sweden, my bad. The question has whole knew meaning now.

Ignore my post if it is completely irrelevant! Ha!
[Galaxy S II General] russpattaya:
Why not ask them directly for an answer: http://www.fonefunshop.co.uk/

Then you will know for sure if they will do it for you, or mabe you can ask if there is a similar service centre in Sweden?
[Galaxy S II General] wdn05:
Thanks for the heads up!

Fully bricked my phone the other day and jig didn't work so sent my phone to them today...
[Galaxy S II General] Atlas1458:
Got a bricked phone from my friend cheap, gonna give them a try :)
[Galaxy S II General] TrOjAnUK:
Well it will be nice to see if you two have the same experience as I did.. PLEASE post back and let me know how you get on, cost, time it takes etc...

Good luck and may the JTAG be with you :D

TrOjAn
[Galaxy S II General] karendar:
What was the last operation you did with your HD2? Was it flash something you shouldn't have? I've never heard of a hard bricked HD2 if you're running HSPL and MAGLDR... Might be something else alltogether.

Contact them nonetheless as there is a jtag solution available for the HD2. They might be able to help you.

There is no such thing as a jig for the HD2 though. ;) hehe.

They do have JTAG support: http://www.fonefunshop.co.uk/cable_picker/95274_HTC_Boot_/_Jtag_/_UnBrick_/_Dead_Phone_/_Software_Repair_Service_(mail_in_repair_service).html and the HTC HD2 is supported... So it's worth a shot!
[Galaxy S II General] MattP79:
$64K Question for you. My SII sufferered a small amount of water damage (phone sitting horizontally in a glass of water) - up to base of the battery / just above the connector for the USB IF board on the main PCA. The phone DID work afterward and suddenly stopped. I replaced the USB I/F board - but nada. It makes no sense the phone no longer boots considering the stories of full immersion with the battery left in for days and the phone surviving. Does anyone think there's a point sending the phone for JTAG repair? Another repair company has cleaned the main PCA and have not been able to resurrect my beloved phone :*(
[Galaxy S II General] TrOjAnUK:
Well JTAG is for when the firmware has been corrupted but yours is a PHYSICAL damage.

Why not speak to them? they have MS online contacts on their web site, did you go there and look?

It will take like 5 minutes to explain what you have done and they will be able to give advice on what to do next.

TrOjAn
[Galaxy S II General] wdn05:
I sent my phone off on the Friday, they received it on the Monday emailing me telling me they had received it. Then sent me an email saying it was fixed...with a pic :) then sent it back in the post and o got it back Tuesday :) EXCELLENT SERVICE!!
[Galaxy S II General] GIR:
40 GBP is good, I ask 50 euro's which is about the same price. The reason why it costs so much is because of the expensive equipment and specific expertise required.

I used to do it by soldering wires too but that's a bit risky. Special JTAG clips are available which snap onto the JTAG points and provide a perfect connection. A single JTAG clip costs 160 euro's.
[Galaxy S II General] E_Goldstein:
this will be me using this service tomorrow, hopefully still as good as everyone else has experienced,

ok so whats the chance that a service centre could still tell that i have had custom roms on my phone?? ya know like me trying to be crafty thinking i could try and con them into fixing it without them knowing i voided my warranty??
[Galaxy S II General] digeddydogg:
Someone tell me if I'm wrong, but your warranty won't matter, Samsung are paying squat, your forking out the cash so warranty means nothing.

Hope it goes well for you! Best of luck!

EDIT

Misread your post I think. Jtag won't give a ****.

If your paying insurance with your network provider. They will be able to tell unless you have erased the custom from count. HOWEVER...

I am with orange and when they replace phones they send someone who comes and picks it up. I have never worried about warranty because the guy coming to get it won't check the boot count. And as far as I'm aware the network won't be told if your flash a custom rom. So if that's the case don't worry.

If you bought it. They will probably check it in the shop if you take it to be replaced.

premium
[Galaxy S II General] E_Goldstein:
so even if i was to tell them it borked out while updating through kies, (i know guys that did it with the hd2 ) they wont do nothing??
[Galaxy S II General] digeddydogg:
Just edited my post so check above.

If they were to check, I would stick a screwdriver through the screen and say if broke when I dropped it. Screens messed they can't check the boot count.
[Galaxy S II General] E_Goldstein:
im only insured through home insurance so its 100quid excess, jtag only 40quid, so not worth it that way.

what i meant though was if i took it to a service centre tell them it messed up during a kies update and now wont turn on, if they was to repair it (idk how jtag works) would it just flash the phone right out and a new bootloader(would that still have the same custom count) yeah i had a huge custom count on about 51 i think LOL. :confused:

see because it doesnt boot at all, i dont get what jtag will repair and flash..
[Galaxy S II General] digeddydogg:
Oh i don't know about that. It would depend if other people reported the same issue with kies update I would expect.

Stupid question but have you tried a jig? Sometimes it takes just that to get some life back as I'm sure your aware. Jtag will be able to fix it I'm sure (probs install latest Samsung rom too). From what I know, you need to find out if there is a physical problem with the motherboard etc or if its just software. (Jig will tell you).

Cant hurt to try and get fixed for free before your try jtag though, no?

EDIT

Jtag will fix anything fro. What im aware.But specifically a hard brick, so problem with motherboard etc. I may he wrong though.

Someone like Trojan will give the exact answers you need I think. Contact them and see what they say!
[Galaxy S II General] E_Goldstein:
yeah i have a usb jig kinda pi%%ed me off after i got home from trying to get it working at a friends they were there at the front door postman was late, so i could of had the counter rest and just gone to the service centre today with it if they had come before dinner ggrrr lolol.

yeah its deff a hard brick i gave the jig a try and nothing at all, thanks for the help, spoke to someone who does jtag's in the states (connexion2005) and he says there is a chance they could turn it on and might not be worth the risk, so for 40quid stuff it, safer than sorry
[Galaxy S II General] digeddydogg:
That's a jip! I hate the bull**** 'we aim to deliver between 8am and 9pm' crap, what are he using? A frigging rickshaw!? Spend the whole day waiting!

Yeah man. In the grand scheme of things 40 shekels ain't **** :).

In case you didn't know, there is jtag in Sheffield I think it is. (If your from the states ignore that.)
[Galaxy S II General] E_Goldstein:
nope im form the uk and only an hour away from sheffield but ill still post it lol, and yeah i found there site then found this thread lol. thanks for the advice mate
[Galaxy S II General] digeddydogg:
No problem, hope it gets sorted.

Rice and pea(ce)
[Galaxy S II General] E_Goldstein:
well the service centre couldnt help me (they didnt care it was rooted LOL) but couldnt do it so just sent it to this place in sheffield they should recieve it tomorrow keep you all informed.

sent on the 9th feb at 4;35

delivered on the 10th at 10;57 emailed me to confirm delivery ten mis later and its in line to be fixed

sat 11th deb ; status on the bench still i guess they dont work saturdays.

mon 13th feb ; status on the bench lol, i guess will be looked at tomorrow hopefully its killing me now ha

tuesday 14th feb; status on the bench, ggrr feels like carlos teves now

wednesday 15th feb , STILL ON THE BENCH, ggrr

thursday 16th feb; starting to think it cant be fixed now :( still not a word from them or any notes on my tracking form

@OP you must of got really lucky with your turn around time lol